E.U. AGRICULTURE CHIEF HOPING TO BOOST FOOD SALES
Top bloc official sees room for expansion despite disagreements in sectors such as electric cars, as he also appeals for more trade with Ukraine
Despite souring relations, there was still great potential for China and the European Union to boost their agri-food trade, the EU’s chief agricultural official said while urging Beijing to increase its purchases from Ukraine.
Janusz Wojciechowski, the EU agriculture commissioner, said he intended to reduce trade barriers and encouraged both sides to remain open to each other’s agricultural products even as other industries grew fractious, most notably electric vehicles.
“Food products should be excluded from problems in other sectors. Open food trade is very important for food security at the global level,” he said in an interview with the Post in Shanghai.
The visit was made in an environment of tense trade relations following EU anti-subsidy probes into several of China’s exports, including electric vehicles and wind turbines. China has responded with its own investigation into imported brandy.
Leading a delegation of over 70 business representatives from the agri-food sector, Wojciechowski said the size of the entourage “shows how important China is as our trade partner”.
While China exports a large volume of goods to Europe, such as solar panels and new energy vehicles, the EU has a significant trade surplus in the agri-food sector.
China is the third-largest destination for EU food and the fifth-largest source of EU food imports, according to 2022 figures from the European Commission.
But EU exports to China in this category have been on a downward trend since 2020, mainly due to Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Wojciechowski said he hoped trade volume could return to 2020 levels.
The EU exported about ¤17.7 billion (HK$148 billion) worth of agri-food products to China in 2020, and imported over ¤5.1 billion worth of those goods from the country the same year.
China was finalising approval for a second batch of geographical indications (GI) covering 175 agricultural products from the EU, said the commissioner, following an agreement signed in 2020 to use the label to protect 100 European products in China and 100 Chinese products in the EU.
A type of intellectual property right, the GI label identifies a product as carrying a specific geographical origin.
Representing a total business value of ¤350 billion, Wojciechowski’s delegation is also attending a major food and beverage trade fair in Shenzhen this week.
“In China, we can observe more interest in the quality of food, safe and healthy food. Chinese consumers are more sensitive to this,” he said, adding quality standards were the main value of food produced in Europe.
The EU remained open to Chinese products as long as those that included genetically modified crops were clearly labelled, Wojciechowski said.
He also implored China to return to previous trade levels with Ukraine, which once counted China as its largest grain importer. This status was disrupted after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative last summer.
“This is very important for the stabilisation of the situation in the global market,” he said.
The Black Sea initiative was implemented in July 2022 to ensure that Ukraine could safely export its grain from its southern ports, but it expired a year later after Russia chose not to renew.